|
Port Call: Sitka!
Dotti was so hungry that she was chewing on her thumb  but now we were sitting at our table, we didn’t have too much time to wait before we got to eat something.
Jim and Tammy were intently studying their menu  to find just the right thing to eat. Jim has on a hat from one ship and a sweatshirt from another. The ships were worlds apart, and for us that was a happy difference for this trip.
Here comes the waitress with our food,  you can tell by the smile on Dotti’s face. The American flag is mounted proudly behind her, a flag that Alaska, along with our son LeRoy’s birth state Hawaii, helped to change from 48 stars to 50 stars.
We must have been hungry because, with three cameras on us, we didn’t take any more pictures until we were finished and back to shopping! We have found our way back to Lincoln  Street once more, near the intersection with Harbor Drive. We’re looking in the window of a shop selling glass works. One of the pieces seems to be looking back at us.
This artist has his eye on the sea, as  he has created shells, starfish, and other things from the ocean, which is such a part of life in Sitka.
Looking up (east) Lincoln Street we can  see St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal church, first built in 1899. On the right is Crescent Harbor.
Before heading back along Lincoln  Street, retracing our steps from earlier in the day, we stopped in Bear Country Gifts and did a wee bit of shopping. Naturally we kept it to the Simple Bear Necessities. We made it back beside St. Michael’s Cathedral,  but this time we came along the other one-way side of Lincoln Street beside it. Situated across from the cathedral stood the second church to be built in Sitka, and the very first Protestant church to be built on the west coast of North America was the Sitka Lutheran Church.
The gentleman in the light colored sweater gave Jim  and me a tour of the building, while Tammy and Dotti headed off to another gift shop. (So little time, so many shops. He was one of the most helpful locals we ran into in any of our port stops. He answered questions and made us feel like we were regular members of the congregation, although I can’t remember ever setting foot in a Lutheran church before. 
He also shared a number of brochures and single page documents containing info on his church. Click on the crosses if you would like to read more on what he shared with us. I really enjoyed the unabashed enthusiasm that  the shopkeepers displayed for the Christmas holiday, even in September. Santa, or Grandfather Frost, was looking back at us many times when we glanced through a shop window. I loved seeing that!
The Matryoshka Dolls (see Sidebar) were also  very common in the shops here. They are a beautiful art form and it was a joy to see so many variations of the little nesting dolls.
Two lovely dolls in a shop window. The one  on the right could be an empress in that gorgeous gown. The one on the left wears a less lavish dress, but she too is very beautiful.
Long ago, even before the Russians first  surprised Constantinople with an attack, the Vikings invaded Russia. Though they were later absorbed by the original population, their blue eyes and blond hair show up often in the art of Russia.
Looking beyond the dolls in the window, you can see the lines of fragile and decorative curios stretching off into the distance. As we got back to the Totem Square area, past  the last of the shops, near the old post office there was this path leading by a string of signs—containing historical information about the Alaska Purchase and the buildings that had once been on Castle  Hill— and on to a set of concrete stairs. The stairs took us to the top of Castle Hill.
We had been getting a lot of exercise the past  few days, and this was just one more example.
Finally, the top was in sight, and we were about  see what was on Castle Hill. Would it be a castle? Would it be a ruin?
When we got to the top what we found was a  field rather than a building. Off in the distance was our old friend Mt. Verstovia behind Crescent Harbor, with only a few wisps of clouds still clinging to its surface.
This sign gave the history of  the various buildings on Castle Hill and explained why there are no buildings here now.
Castle Hill commands a great view of Sitka Sound,  and it provided a great point of defense for the young town. Attack from the sea could be well defended against with cannons on this hill.
It was on this very hill where the actual  ceremony took place transferring Alaska to the United States.
This plaque was placed to commemorate that event. As you can see, it has been here longer than many of the other plaques we have seen, and it has weathered as a result, turning green.
Two old impotent cannons point out to sea, unable to fire a ball, and even it if they could, the cannonballs they used to project would just bounce off the metal ships of today.
In the background the O’Connell Bridge once again becomes a major part of the landscape within our field of vision. 
The rusty mussel stands like an old soldier, too tired and arthritic to march, but holding his pose at attention nonetheless.
Off in the distance the flag in front of the Pioneer House is visible. Because of what took place on this spot in 1867, that flag has stars and stripes. These six images walk you through the entire length of the O’Connell Bridge, starting on the left where ms Westerdam sits patiently waiting for our return.
As you move to the right you can see beneath the bridge our loading dock where we soon would rendezvous with the launch that would take us back to our ship. In the fourth picture the runway for the Sitka Airport is visible running out into the water, while above some gulls are gliding by as if to say, "Yes, you can fly, but we have been doing it much longer!" It was almost exactly 7 hours after I saw the amphibious plane take off right from under that bridge. It seemed like a lot more time than that had passed. By the time I took this picture, I was getting  pretty tired. We had been on our feet, walking almost constantly for four and a half hours. We had gone up stairs, and retraced our steps all along Lincoln Street. My mind had been actively taking in information nearly the entire time. I had used up most of my internal resources, or at least that is how it felt. I zoomed in a bit to catch a closer look at the place I was ready to return to. She was looking mighty good about now!
Following Harbor Drive, as it comes down off O'Connell  Bridge and makes its way into Sitka, soon to pass by Harrigan Centennial Hall.
The mountains of the Tongass Forest look as if their clouds haven't shifted a bit from the time when we first pulled in. Sugarloaf Mountain in the middle looks more like a giant haystack to me, but then I have seen more haystacks than I have large scale piled sugar. Harbor Drive continues on its way northeast in this photo,  while Mt. Verstovia stands behind, as if unconcerned in its own world of superiority. (What possible significance could beings who have only been around for time measured in mere millennia have to one such as he, who has watched more than once as huge sheets of ice covered this land, only to retreat?)
On the right side of the road, looking a bit like a Pizza Hut, with its hexagonal roof, is the Harrigan Centennial Hall. If we had walked straight from there to here, it would have been short walk indeed. But instead we walked the opposite direction, back up to Lincoln Street, and came along that road past St. Michael's Cathedral, whose tower is just visible as it is nearly tangled up with the branch on the left of the photo. The masts held in Crescent Harbor are just visible over the treetops, but the rock protective seawall is very easy to see, running across the water. Zooming in, St. Michael's Cathedral  becomes very easy to see. Just to the right of it, but significantly shorter, the triple crosses of the Sitka Lutheran Church are visible.
The thought had crossed my mind, and has crossed it many times since, that I could probably live happily in this town. The setting is so beautiful that it is hard to imagine anything that could top it. Moving around the circle, the Pioneer House  is also easy to see from up on Castle Hill. And those chairs that Jim and I were sitting in earlier would have been most welcome about now.
Before we said goodbye to Castle Hill we took a few pictures of each other with ms Westerdam at anchor in the background. It was fun posing and taking the pictures.
|
